Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years. Identifying the Misfit

Daria is the creation of Glenn Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling and Warner Brothers. I own neither, and neither expect nor deserve financial compensation for this story. I am writing for my own amusement and for ego gratification.

This chapter rated T for Language

Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years*Daria Ravenclaw: the Highland Years*Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years

Highland was somewhere between a large town and small city; it was still small enough so that you might find yourself near the center of the action. Daria knew that it was possible that she'd run into one of the Steel Hands or someone from one of the other gangs that were tearing up Highland, but she didn't think it was likely. If you'd asked her, she would have said that she had better odds of meeting the President of the United States of America. That changed a couple of days after Cuthbert showed her the game room when she and Jake went out to the drug store at one of the strip malls north and east of downtown after school. Highland still had a drug store downtown, but it was small and its stock was limited, despite the VA hospital not being that far away.

Her Dad had driven to the strip mall not in his usual crew-cab pickup truck, but in a loaner car provided by a car-rental agency affiliated with the garage that he and Helen usually patronized. The rental agency had provided him with a street version of some of the muscle cars used in dirt-track stock-car racing, complete with a large engine, racing tires, and reinforced shock absorbers. Jake had already learned that the car gulped gas like fraternity boys drank beer at a kegger party. Still, he had the thrill of driving a real muscle car, the sort of car he dreamed about in the summers when he came home from Buxton Ridge, and he decided that he didn't begrudge the extra money he'd pay to feed the rental car's voracious appetite. He'd get his truck back in a day or two; in the meantime, he could be that kid whose dreams finally came true.

Daria felt a little smug about this trip. Quinn had wanted to come too; she'd even left her light jacket and her pink knitted cap in the back seat, but Mom had stopped her plan to come along at the last minute.

It was Daria who spotted the man, and recognized who the man must be. It was Snake, one of Sickle's sidekicks. Comparing him in her mind to the photographs that had appeared on television and realizing that the features matched sent a chill through her chest.

She didn't expect to find herself in the Grandmother's role from Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find." She thought about what she should do. The Grandmother had caused her family's destruction when she identified the Misfit right in front of him instead of keeping her stupid mouth shut. Daria thought that the grandmother could have kept her family alive if she'd been smart enough to play dumb and not recognize him.

Daria made her decision. She certainly wasn't going to blurt out "You're the Misfit!" in front of him. If she kept everything low-key, then quietly, carefully back away from the scene, she and her Dad could avoid following the plot of O'Connor's story. Be cautious, Morgendorffer, don't look at the guy, try to leave without attracting attention. She pulled on Jake's sleeve.

"Dad, do you trust me?" said Daria.

"Of course, Smidget," said Jake.

"I think we ought to leave now," she said.

"Now?" said Jake.

"Really," said Daria.

Jake hesitated for a moment, but recognized his daughter's tone of voice. The Smidget wouldn't say anything like that unless she had very good reasons.

"Let's go," he said. "We can come back later."

-(((O-O)))-

It was a really good plan; it ought to have worked. But it didn't. Despite Daria's caution, Snake realized that he'd been made. It wasn't one of the grown-ups who'd made him; he'd been recognized by a little girl. The little girl said something to her Dad; the man listened, then took her by the hand and left the store.

What to do? Snake decided that he'd play it safe. Reinhart had a job he wanted done by tomorrow night, one that would cement his posse's control on this hick town. Reinhart said that the plan needed secrecy and preparation. The last thing he wanted were cops on his case and that meant taking care of any witnesses. Family Man and his little girl were witnesses. They needed to be taken care of.

He thought about how to take care of them. The best thing to do, thought Snake, was get control of the two of them, take them out to someplace quiet, and do them both. He thought about ordering Jack to walk over to their car and take it at gunpoint. He discarded it as a bad idea; there were too many other witnesses and he and Jack would be made as carjackers even if he tried to waste them all.

When Snake reached his car, he realized that his plan had a very obvious flaw: Jack wasn't in the side seat. He'd gone off somewhere. Snake thought about doing it solo, rejected it, then clenched his teeth in frustration as the Family Man got into the car with his nosy little girl, started it up, then backed out to drive away. He started up his own car, then noted that Family Man had just made a right turn. He was thinking about what to do next when he heard someone give the roof of the Saturn he was driving a couple of thumps. He looked over and saw that it was Jack; the $-hat had finally finished whatever he'd been doing.

"Whassup?" said Jack.

"Witnesses," said Snake. "We got to take care of them."

-(((O-O)))—

"So what was it, Daria?" asked Jake as he was backing up.

"There was a guy in the drug store," said Daria. "I recognized him. He was one of the Steel Hand gang, one of the ones wanted by the cops."

"Oh my G*d," said Jake.

"That's why I asked you to leave the store," said Daria. "I thought it would dangerous to be anywhere near the guy."

Both Jake and Daria had the same thoughts. Had the gangster seen them getting into the car? Had they decided to follow them? If they did, what the Hell would they do?

Jake saw a left turn lane at the next intersection. He knew this intersection; the lights cycled through quickly and he and Daria wouldn't be here long. He could make a left turn, drive over to Goodnight Road, then make a right turn. After that, they could drive back to the Aylesford. Helen would just have to wait for her hair products.

Jake and Daria didn't know it, but they'd temporarily shaken off pursuit. Snake looked around in all directions, trying to find Family Man and his street rod.

Snake was in a bad mood. They'd lost Family Man and his kid. He still wanted them and he wanted them bad.

He decided to drive around a bit to see where they'd gone. If he saw them, he and Jack could follow them and do Plan A: get control of them, drive to someplace quiet, and do them. He turned left, then right. He was now on Goodnight Road. He looked ahead and he saw it: Family Man's street rod. He smiled. There you are, you asshole, he thought.

Daria was still frightened. She hoped they might be safe, but there was no real reason to believe that they were, at least not yet. She looked out the side mirror to see what cars were behind them. She didn't recognize the gangsters' car. She and Dad had left the parking lot before she could see what sort of car they might be driving.

The light changed and traffic started moving. She kept looking in the side mirror, and saw a Saturn aggressively attempt to work its way around the car directly behind their street rod. The pickup behind them refused to move over, and the Saturn had to stay behind. The Saturn then decided to try to pass on the right. Daria looked over and saw the driver; it was the guy from the store.

The gangster wasn't able to get in front of Daria's and Jake's car; the car in front of him slowed down to a complete stop to let someone who'd parallel-parked to get out into traffic.

Jake was feeling a little euphoric. He thought he lost them.

"So how are we doing, kiddo?" he asked.

"They've spotted us," said Daria. "They're driving that blue Saturn over in the right lane two cars back."

Jake glanced in his rear view mirror. There was a blue sedan over on the right two cars behind them, but he didn't recognize the make. "I'll try to lose them," he said.

The lights changed and traffic began to move again. Just to stay on the safe side, he made a left turn, then a right turn, then another right turn. The blue Saturn was still with them. That car was following them. There was no reason for those guys to be tailing him. Daria was right. This was not co-incidence. That car was following them.

Jake was frightened. It wasn't just that his daughter was right; it was what she was right about. There were two gang members in a car behind them, they were following him, and they wanted to kidnap and probably kill both of them.

He was in a car chase. By now he had a sense of how the guy in the Saturn drove: he was an aggressive driver who was unafraid of taking risks. Jake had been more aggressive in the first years after he'd gotten his driver's license, but he'd grown more careful as he'd grown older. More to the point, he had a passenger: his oldest girl. *

Jake didn't realize it at first, but he had an advantage over Snake: he'd been living in Highland for the better part of a decade and knew the town's streets and roadways far better than the gangster who'd grown up inside Loop 610 and had only been living in Highland for a few weeks. Jake also had something else Snake lacked: practice. Jake had spent years driving to and from work as well as thousands of miles driving on Texas highways while Snake had been doing time behind bars.

Jake decided to risk heading back downtown. Some of the streets near the Aylesford were still blocked and barricaded, but some of the ones a couple of blocks away weren't. He'd try to see if he could trap the Saturn in traffic and make his escape. If he could trap them at a slow light, he could then take the detour that would take them north on 87 and then to Interstate Highway 20. His escape plan hit an obstacle on Second Avenue: school busses. Flipping school busses. In particular one of several school busses, but one with flashing lights, teachers, and students crossing the street in bunches.

There was no way he was going to drive through that. He came to a stop to let the kids pass.